The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-07-07


not only bring them down under the arrow
OF the gospel, but bring them into the
church Of God, the grand home and en-
campment we have pitched this side the
skies. Fetch them in; do not let them liz
out in the open field. They need our
prayers, and sympathies, and help. That
IS the meaning of the church of G God-help.
y ye hunters for the Lordl not only bring
down the game, but bring ii in.
II Mlthridates liked hunting so well that
Tor seven years he never went indoors, what
enthusiasm ought we to have who ara
hunting for immortal souls2 II Domitian
practiced archery until he could stand q
boy down in the Roman AmphitheateT,
with hand out, the fingers outstretched,
and then the King could shoot an arrow
between the fingers without wounding
them, to what drill and practice ought not
we to subject ourselves in order to become
spiritual archers and mighty hunters be-
fore the Lordl" But let me say you will
never work any better than you pray. The
old archers took the bow, put one end of it
down beside the foot, elevated the other
end, and it was the rule that the bow
should be Just the size of the archer; if it
were Just his size, then he would go into
the battle with confidence. Let me say that
your power to project good in the world
will correspond exactly 10 your own
spiritual stature. In other words, the first
thing in preparation for Christian work Is
personal conservation.
Oh for a closer walk with God
A calm and heavenly frame,
light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb
am sure that there are some here who
at some time have been hit by the Gospel
arrow. You felt the wound of that con-
yiction and you plunged into the world
deeper, just as the stag, when the hounds
are after it, plunges into Scroon Lake, ex-
pecting in that way to escape. Jesus
Christ is on your track to-day, impeniteni
man! not in wrath, but in mercy. Oyo
chased and painting souls, here is the
stream Of Gods mercy and salvation
where you may cool your thirst! Stop
that chase of sin to-day. By the red foun-
tain that leaped from the heart of my Lord,
I bid you stop. There is mercy for you
mercy that pardons; mercy that heals;
everlasting mercy. Is there in all this
house any one who can refuse the offer
that comes from the heart Of the dying Soa
of God1
There is forest in Germany, a place
they call the "deer leap"-two crags about
eighteen yards apart, between a fearful
chasm. This is called the "deer leap" be-
cause once hunter was on the track of q
deer; it came to one of these crag; there
was no escape for it from the pursuit of
the hunter, and in utter despair it gathered
itself up, and in the death agony attempted
to jump across. Of course, it fell, and was
dashed on the rocks far beneath. Here ia
a path to heaven; it is plain; it is safe.
Jesus marks it out for every man to walk
in. But here is man who says: 81 won't
walk in that path; will take my own way"
He comes on up until he confronts the
chasm that divides his soul from heaven
Now, his last hour has come, and he re-
solves that he will leap that chasm, from
the heights of earth to the heights of
heaven. Stand back now and give him full
swing, for no soul ever did that success
fully. Let him try. Jump! Jump! He
misses the mark, and he goes down, depth
below depth, destroyed without remedy
Men! angels devils! what shall we call that
place of 'ul catastrophe? Let it be
known TO er as "The Sinners Death
Leap"
1t is said that when Charlemagne's host
was overpowered by the three armies OF
the Saracens in the pass of RoncesvalleF
his warrior, Roland, in terrible earnest
ness, seized trumpet and blew it with
such terrific strength that the opposing
army reeled back with terror; but at the
third blast of the trumpet it broke in two.
see your soul fercely assailed by all the
powers of earth and hell. 1 put the
mightier trumpet of the Gospel to my
lips and blow it three times. Blast the
first "Whosoever will let him come.H
Blast the second: "Seek ye the Lord whiIe
he may be found" Blast the third: "NoV
is the accepted time; now is the day OF
salvation" Does not the host of your sins
fall back? But the trumpet does not, like
that of Roland, break in two. AS it was
handed down to US from the lips of our
fathers we hand it down to the lips of our
children, and tell them to sound it when
we are dead, that all the generations Of
men may know that our God is o pardon
ing God, sympathetic God, loving God;
and that more to Him than the anthems OF
Heaven, more to Him than the throne on
which He sits, more to Him than are the
temples of celestial worship, is the joy of
seeing the wanderer putting his hand ON
the door latch of his fathers house. Hear
it, all ye nations! Bread for the worst
hunger. Medicine for the worst sickness.
Light for the thickest darkness. Harbor
from the worst storm.
DR.. Prime, in his book of wonderful in
terest, entitled Around the World, de-
scribes tomb in India of marvellous archi-
lecture. Twenty thousand men we're
twenty-five years in erecting that and the
buildings around it. Standing at that
tomb, if you speak or sing, after you have
ceased you hear the echo coming from a
height of $50 feet. 1t is not like other
e ,hoes. The sound is drawn out in sweet
prolongation, as though the angels of God
we're chanting on the wing.
How many souls here to day, in the
tomb of sin, will lift up the voice of peni-
sence and prayer? If now they would cry
unto God, the echo would drop from afar
not struck from the marble cupola Of an
earthly mausoleum, but sounding back
from the warm heart of angels, flying with
the news; for there is joy among the
angels of God over one sinner that repent
nth